In a letter dated November 26, Sean Mulcahy, senior vice-president of Savvas Learning Company, stated that the Department of Education did not follow procurement rules when selecting the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum. He emphasized that normally, multiple curriculum companies would have had opportunities to submit proposals, but in this case, Illustrative Mathematics was chosen without any competing bids or a proper procurement process.
Despite the citywide decline in Algebra 1 Regents exam scores, the Department of Education has mandated the use of the Illustrative Math curriculum in nearly all high schools, which teachers have reported disliking. These mandated changes are part of the NYC Solves initiative launched to rectify the alarming statistic of over half of students in grades 3-8 not being proficient in math.
The DOE defended its actions stating that it 'has complied with all procurement policies and procedures' and that it evaluated various companies that responded to a Request for Information regarding math curricula. However, the lack of evidence for a competitive bidding process raises questions about transparency and fairness in the selection of the curriculum.
Collection
[
|
...
]